Rotary lift adjustable basketball goal

ABSTRACT

An adjustable basketball goal pivotally secured to a fixed support post with pairs of interengaged pivoted lever arms. A height adjustment mechanism is secured to the support post with a unidirectional activation connection bar extending therefrom pivotally interconnected to a pair of goal lever arm supports. A gear rack portion on the activation connection bar is positioned for registration within a double gear reduction drive engagement assembly having a user engagement crank arm extending therefrom providing selective directional rotation incrementally to elevate and lower the basketball goal in relation to the support post. A handle integrated automatic height adjustment braking system is provided assuring the goal assembly is retained in position during raising and lowering thereof.

This is a Continuation in Part patent application of Ser. No.17/319,449, Filed May 13, 2021.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Technical Field

This invention relates to sport goals, specifically basketball goalsthat are height adjustable to accommodate different player venues.

2. Description of Prior Art

Prior art adjustable basketball goals have been developed that usedifferent goal post support adjustment systems, see for example U.S.Pat. Nos. 5,388,821, 6,273,834, 7,892,118, 8,708,844 and U.S. PatentPublication 2004/0018900A1.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,821 discloses a force lifting adjustment basketballgoal having a counterweight with a basketball goal on a support post.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,834 claims a quick release self-adjusting latch foran adjustable basketball goal with a dual arm pivot support andadjustment mechanism having locking key selectively engaged within aplurality of opposing aligned spaced slots.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,892,118 describes a basketball goal having an adjustablehoop and backboard with an integrated adjustment rack having a remoterelease activation positioned on the support post.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,708,844 illustrates a basketball system with a pivotedmulti-paired arm adjustable backboard and hoop configuration forvertical adjustment.

Finally, U.S. Publication 2007/0042843A1 discloses a basketball systemhaving a basketball goal and support structure which is adjustablevertically by engagement of a pair of parallel spaced pivoted supportarms to support post and a spring-loaded lever action adjustment forheight system, all on a support structure which is movably positionedabout the venue.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the adjustable basketball goal insolid lines and in broken lines indicating height adjustability.

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view thereof.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the gear reduction ratchetheight adjustment assembly with portions broken away.

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view thereof with portions broken away andin broken lines illustrating the adjustment engagement achieved.

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the rotary ratchet heightassembly.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged exploded perspective view of a pinion shaft andauto braking assembly.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective view of the first reduction gear anddrive pinion gear.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A height adjustable basketball goal pivotally secured to a support posthaving an adjustable rotary lift double gear reduction drive gearassembly secured to the ends of a pair of goal level support arms andpivotally secured and extending beyond the support post allowing forincremental vertical adjustment of the basketball goal on the supportpost.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, a rotary lift adjustablebasketball goal 10 of the invention can be seen having a hollow supportpost member 11. Pairs of vertically spaced upper and lower basketballbackboard support arms 12 and 13 respectively extend in a parallelogramrelationship. The backboard support arm pairs 12 and 13 are pivotallyconnected to a backboard 14 which includes a basketball rim and netassembly 15 as will be well understood by those skilled in the art. Thebackboard support arm pair 12 is pivotally secured on their respectiveproximal ends to apertured mounting brackets extending from therespective side surfaces 11A and 11B of the support post 11 and itsupper end designated as 16.

Correspondingly, the backboard support arm pairs 13 are pivotallysecured to and extend beyond the support post 11 side surfaces 11A and11B in vertical spaced relation to the hereinbefore described supportarm pairs 12 pivot point at 17.

It will thus be seen that a dual pivot point orientation of theparallelogram spaced upper and lower basketball backboard support armpairs 12 and 13 will provide vertical adjustment movement to thepivotally attached backboard 14 while maintaining the backboard 14 inparallel vertical relationship to the support post 11 and keeping thebasketball rim and net assembly 15 on a horizontal plane regardless ofits vertical position.

A pivoting backboard activation connection bar 18 is pivotally connectedto and between the respective apertured ends 13B of the backboardsupport arm pairs 13. The backboard activation bar 18 extends therefromin parallel aligned spaced relation along the support post 11 and has anengagement gear rack insert surface portion 18A thereon, best seen inFIGS. 1, 3 and 4 of the drawings for registration with a rotary dualgear reduction type actuating height adjustment assembly 19. The rotaryactuator height adjustment assembly 19 is mounted between a pair ofapertured support brackets 20 and 21 extending in fixed relation fromthe support post 11 back surface 11C. The rotary actuator heightadjustment assembly 19 has an open-ended housing 22 with a handlefitting 23 for receiving a user engagement crank handle 24 extendingtherefrom with an automatic braking assembly 25 best seen in FIGS. 2, 3and 6 of the drawings.

Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6 of the drawings, the crank handle 24 isthreadably secured onto a pinion shaft assembly 26 with an automaticbraking assembly 25 components including a brake disk 24A, ratchetsocket 25B, and a bushing 25D. A compression spring and cap lockassembly 27 is positioned on the end of the pinion shaft assembly 26which imparts rotational input from the crank handle to a first piniongear 28 to a reduction main gear 29 having a second reduction piniongear 30 extending therefrom, as best seen in FIG. 7 of the drawings.

The activation connection bar 18 pivotally attached to the end of thebackboard support arms 12 and 13 with the gear rack insert surfaceportion 18A which is guidably positioned through the adjustable driveassembly 19 by a synthetic frictional guide top cap 31A and an internalfriction guide pad channel 31B.

It will be evident from the above description that selectiveuni-directional rotation of the crank arm 24 on the pinion shaftassembly 26 will rotate the first pinion gear 28 in communication withthe first reduction main gear 29 and therefore its correspondinglysecond gear reduction pinion gear 30 whose gear teeth 30A will thereforeengage and selectively raise or lower the backboard activation bar 18and thereby the pivotally attached basketball backboard 14 ashereinbefore described.

Retained advancement of the backboard activation bar 18 and basketballbackboard 14 is maintained by the unidirectional height adjustmentautomatic brake assembly 25 which controls the rate of descent as willbe understood by those skilled in the art.

As it will be seen, the rotary lift mechanism of the present inventionfor adjustable height basketball system utilizes the double gearreduction system in tandem with an automatic brake assembly 25 thatenables the user to easily raise and lower the hoop assembly 25 bysimply turning the crank 24 one way or the other. This system, asdescribed, does not require the user, not shown, to manually select anup or down mode only one interface point with the crank handle 24 isneeded. It will therefore be evident that the current system'sadvantages over prior art is the speed and effort required to raise therim and net assembly 15 from low setting to a high setting which can beachieved in a reduced number of rotations of the crank 24 with lesseffort in a shorter period of time. It will also be evident that theuser can make the rim and net assembly 15 go up and down at any time bychoosing to turn the crank 24 during clockwise rotation to raise thehoop, the rotary ratchet assembly 25C clicks on the ratchet sprocket 25Bto lift the system incrementally, as described, and correspondingly ifthe user rotates the handle counter-clockwise direction to lower the rimand net assembly 15, the automatic brake assembly 25 gradually slipsallowing the rim and net assembly 15 to come down. It will be seen thatthe rim and net assembly 15 will only come down gradually as the brakingassembly 25 will immediately engage if the crank handle 24 is released.It will therefore be seen that the combination of speed and safetyovercomes many of the typical complaints of current prior art systemswhich tend to be cumbersome, time consuming and require more effort.

It will thus be seen that a new and novel rotary lift adjustablebasketball goal has been illustrated and described and it will beapparent to those skilled in the art that various changes andmodifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit ofthe invention. Therefore, I claim:

1. An adjustable basketball goal system for bi-directional heightadjustment of a basketball goal assembly above a playing surfacecomprising in combination, a rigid vertical post support member, a firstgoal support structure including a backboard, a first pair of parallelsupport arms pivotally connected to said backboard and to the rigid postsupport member, a second goal support structure including saidbackboard, a second pair of parallel support arms pivotally connected tothe backboard and the rigid post support member and extending therebeyond defining a parallelogrammical with said first pair of parallelsupport arms, an extension activation bar pivotally connected at one endto the second pair of parallel support arms free ends, and extendingthrough and engaged by a rotary actuator height adjustment assemblysecured to said rigid post support member, said rotary actuation heightadjustment assembly comprises, an open-ended housing having a syntheticfriction guide cap and an interior friction guide pad channel, andpinion shaft assembly rotatably positioned therein comprising a crankhandle, automatic braking assembly, a first pinion gear on said pinionshaft in communication with a reduction main gear in said housing, asecond gear reduction pinion gear extending from said reduction maingear for engagement with a gear rack insert on said extension activationbar positioned inwardly of its free end wherein rotary movement by therotary actuator height adjustment assembly raises and lowers theextension activation bar selectively engaging said second goal supportstructure for movement of the parallelogrammical structure and thebasketball goal assembly pivotally secured thereto.
 2. The adjustablebasketball goal as set forth in claim 1 wherein said automatic brakingassembly comprises, a braking disk, a ratchet assembly and socket, abushing and adjustable compression spring cap locking assembly.
 3. Theadjustable basketball goal set forth in claim 2 wherein said ratchetassembly comprises, a selective stop positioned to engage the ratchetsocket.